Are you still spinning CD/SACD and frustrated that your music player choices are limited?

SACD 2

No doubt computer audio is on the rise and the glut of components to address this trend is abundant. Every week we hear from audiophiles that are currently playing discs instead of files and they are quite frustrated with the choices in the marketplace of CD/SACD players. If you are one of them, don’t feel alone. According to a prominent reviewer/industry insider, about 10% to 20% of audiophiles are still spinning CDs and here’s why you are frustrated.

  • Philips and Esoteric used to be the prominent suppliers for transport mechanisms and both have since stopped making them available to other manufacturers
  • Sony has also stopped making their ES chips
  • As such, manufacturers that don’t have their proprietary mechanisms are not able to make any SACD/CD players anymore.
  • Companies such as Accuphase, dCS, EMM Labs, Playback Designs only offer SACD players north of $10,000 mark. Only McIntosh offers an SACD player with an older design at $6,500 and another at $11,000.

However, great recordings are still being produced in SACDs and you can hear the distinct difference:

  • Brand new SACDs are being produced every month.
  • Acoustic Sound currently showing 94 titles coming soon (more on this here)
  • Elusive Discs have over 100 titles available for pre-order (more on this here)

Luxman just celebrated its 90th birthday and has recently completed the update process of all their SACD/CD players with proprietary transport mechanisms. There are three models to choose from – D-05u, D-06u and D-08u @ $4,990, $9,990 and $17,990 respectively. This is a very nice range with great value to offer.

Luxman D-08u music player
Luxman D-08u music player

These players are all developed and made in Japan. As a matter of fact, while there were a select few Luxman models that were made in China for a couple years in the past, Luxman has ceased making any more products in China. Any rumors of Luxman products are all made in China cannot be farther from the truth.

Here are some important features of these players:

  • They now feature a USB input that supports up to DSD128 and 32 bit PCM, SPDIF & Toslink
  • Luxman D-08u rear detail
    Luxman D-08u digital inputs and outputs
  • All now come with Luxman’s LxDTM proprietary transport mechanism:
  • Luxman D-08u music player

  • The finest build quality, superb reliability, made in Japan
  • Legendary pedigree in sound quality – Luxman won a Grand Prix award from Stereo Sound in 1987 for their 60 lb. digital analogue converter, the DA-07.


Here’s an excerpt from one of the latest reviews:

audio beat logo“The D-08u looks so good and sounds so good playing discs or files via its USB input that at its price I can’t think of a better or more versatile way to crunch bits into music.

“Where the Luxman player succeeds (and where so many other one-box players fall short) is in making the SACD layer sound like a better, fuller, more realistic version of the music captured on the CD layer.”



Call to Action:

If you are not familiar with Luxman as a brand, I would like to invite you to preview our website regarding the Luxman brand. Our blog is pretty rich with many articles on Luxman products. Here’s a link to search for Luxman articles on the blog.

Next Step:

Please reach out to us to arrange for your personal audition of a suitable Luxman SACD/CD player at an authorized dealer near you. Click here to reach us or call us at 949-544-1990.

1 thoughts on “Are you still spinning CD/SACD and frustrated that your music player choices are limited?

  1. Robert Moslow says:

    Holy Cow! I came on looking to replace my long-lived Denon 2200 which plays SACD-DSD discs. Its ‘acting up’ a bit. Bought it many moons ago for about 500 dollars. Is there no other moderately priced players that can handle these discs & produce the sound as intended layered on the discs?
    I have a Denon amp & B&W 803 speakers. Thanks, Philip

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